I finally had time for an ultrasound scan before New Year's Day and received the good news -- I'm having a girl. Yay!

We're naming her Annamika. While it's an amalgam of our names, it also means 'grace' and 'who is like God' . I haven't decided on additional names.

Now, since I'm at it, let me talk about names.

Parents usually want to give unique names to their kids. Apart from the desire to distinguish their kids from the millions of Juans and Juanas in the NBI files, there is the desire to be called creative. This has brought about foreign (even weird-sounding) names, names that are too long, too hard to spell or pronounce, and names that may not even have any meaning at all.

As for me, I choose names based on three criteria: first, it should go well with our family name (which sounds very Filipino). English names sound good by themselves, but paired with Filipino last names they're a different story altogether. Try "Lisa Marie Dimaguiba" or "Richmond Albert Thaddeus Palakpakan." Di bagay, di ba?

Second, dapat hindi mahirap i-spell or i-pronounce. Life is already complicated as it is, I don't want to complicate it further by spending time correcting people on how to say my kid's name. Lalo namang ayokong pahirapan ang batang i-memorize ang spelling ng sarili niyang pangalan!
Then of course, the meaning. Some people name their kids Tallulah, Sushmita, Akihito, etc, in the interest of being unique. But what does the name actually mean, and does it even go anywhere close the personality or appearance of the person named? Might be that the name means white and pure, and the person isn't.

And I won't even go into nicknames.

That said, to each his own. :)

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I noticed more and more parents are giving their kids foreign sounding names, usually French. I noticed though that since it's adapted, there are mistakes in spelling or assignment, and I've met boys named Dominique and Gabrielle. The feeling is very akin to being introduced to a man named Baby or Fely.

In the interest of correct spelling and pronounciation, here's a little guide (masculine form followed by the female counterpart):

1. Louis (pronounced Louie and not Luis) - Louise
2. Jean (pron. zhe-an) - Jeanette or Jeanine
3. Dominic - Dominique
4. Andre - Andree (pron. An-drey)
5. Daniel - Danielle
6. Gabriel - Gabrielle
7. Emmanuel - Emmanuelle
8. Michel (pron. Mi-shel) - Michelle
9. Rene - Renee
10. Christian - Christiane